Field
This disclosure relates to systems, devices, and methods with applications in, for example, hospitals and other patient care facilities. For example, the systems, devices, and methods described herein can be used for monitoring a system that acquires physiological information from patients, analyzes the physiological information, and communicates the physiological information to clinicians and other systems or devices.
Description of the Related Art
Hospitals, nursing homes, and other patient care facilities typically include patient monitoring devices at one or more bedsides in the facility. Patient monitoring devices generally include sensors, processing equipment, and displays for obtaining and analyzing a medical patient's physiological parameters. Physiological parameters include, for example, respiratory rate, SpO2 level, pulse, and blood pressure, among others. Clinicians, including doctors, nurses, and certain other medical personnel use the physiological parameters obtained from the medical patient to diagnose illnesses and to prescribe treatments. Clinicians also use the physiological parameters to monitor a patient during various clinical situations to determine whether to increase the level of medical care given to the patient.
The patient monitoring devices may obtain and analyze a large amount of data (e.g., physiological parameters for one or more medical patients over a long period of time). In addition, the patient monitoring devices may be interconnected via a local network and exchange such data. Clinicians may then have the ability to obtain the physiological parameters even when stationed remotely (e.g., another floor of a hospital, in a building outside a hospital, in a different city, etc.), increasing the quality of medical care provided to patients.
However, the medical care given to patients may be adversely affected if the patient monitoring devices or the systems that support the patient monitoring devices (e.g., a physiological monitoring system) fail (e.g., due to user error, power failure, etc.). While a clinician may detect a failure once it has occurred, the clinician must then identify and notify the appropriate technician. It could take hours to days before a technician can arrive and resolve the issue. Because clinicians and patients may be relying on the physiological parameters to treat ailments, such delay may be unacceptable.